Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) it seems is struggling with the changing dynamics in the messaging world. The company which acquired WhatsApp after failing to make its own FB Messenger a preferred choice for smartphone users, is also failing it seems with its Slingshot App. A recent article on Gigaom described how after the initial few days of the success that the app enjoyed due to the hype created by Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), now the App is finding it hard to find a dedicated user base.
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) launched Slingshot with much fanfare three months ago, with a unique proposition attached to it. Unlike other messaging apps where users can directly view the content sent to them, on Slingshot one had to post one’s own unique content in order to view content posted by their friends. This feature set out to break Internet’s ‘one percent rule’, according to which the content that is viewed by all users on the net is actually created by only 1% of the users, as Gigaom said. The article quoted Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s product team as saying when they launched the app that with Slingshot everyone is a creator and not just a spectator.
As with all the other well established rules in the past, the ‘one percent rule’ turned out to be unbreakable and Slingshot, after the initial hype surrounding it’s launched, failed to excite users. Seeing the dwindling demand of the app, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has now decided to do away with Slingshot’s only unique feature. In an update on Thursday, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) announced that now users can send ‘unlocked’ or ‘locked’ posts, thereby giving them a choice of whether they want to go with Slingshot’s boomerang feature or not. Now that it’s only unique feature is gone, it remains to be seen if Slingshot can find its own user base or ends up being just a SnapChat imitator.
As of June 30, 2014, Philippe Laffont‘s Coatue Capital Management owns over 5.8 million shares in Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB).
Disclosure: None
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